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Thursday, February 25, 2010
How Many Times Have You Seen _____________?
I'm curious. Some Oscar seasons seem better attended than others if you know what I mean. Please answer ALL the polls so we have an accurate sense of how box office and DVD and general hoopla correlate with you, reader, you. How familiar are you with Avatar, Precious, The Blind Side, District 9, Up in the Air, A Serious Man, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Up and The Hurt Locker? If you're just lurking, why not click some buttons? You'll be done in 20 seconds. It's easy. And oh so revealing while still being anonymous. Ah the joys of internet movie addiction.
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22 comments:
What about you, Nathaniel, you? :p
Which of these movies did you see more than once?
good question Jim.
it goes like so
TWICE
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Precious
Inglourious Basterds
Up
District 9
ONCE
An Education
A Serious Man
Up in the Air
The Blind Side
I would have seen them all twice but not every company sends me screeners and I'm far more likely to go another round if i have a screener.
I love how snooty and indignant your readers are-- The Blind Side is the film with a major "I haven't seen this and I don't plan to" contingent. Excellent.
rosengje -- i don't really understand the "refuse to see it" thing when it comes to Oscar nominees. Even if it's bad, ya gotta see it!
Bleh... I've inadvertently seen The Blind Side twice.
This was actually interesting to answer. Never really thought about it. I've seen many more of these twice than I thought I had.
As I had expected, Basterds has the highest percentage of double and triple watchings. It is also the only one I saw twice. Not that I like it the most out of the nominees, it was more of a coincidence. Still haven't seen the Blind Side, and am afraid I'm not gonna watch it. Not because I'm snooty, it's just that there's currently no theatrical release planned in the Netherlands. And I highly prefer theater over dvd. Well, I guess that does make me snooty.
Ten years ago I was an Oscar-completist, trying to see every nominated film even if, in the days before the compressed theatrical-to-video release window, that meant traveling to some far-flung theatres to catch things like Babe: Pig in the City (totally worth the drive to San jose) and American History X (totally not worth trying to navigate the Alameda County bus system to get to) before the show.
But lately I've felt more interested in prioritizing films made in other countries, other eras, and by filmmakers working below the Academy's collective radar screen, as well as keeping up with the careers of certain Hollywood directors that may or may not be in favor with the Academy in any given year. And I'm not nearly as compulsive about seeing Oscar-approved films anymore.
I still follow Oscar season and watch the awards, but rarely do I watch a film simply because it's been Oscar-nominated. It has to have something else of interest to me.
I might say that the 10 Best Picture nominee lineup helps me rationalize not seeing all the Best Picture nominees, but to be honest there's been at least one BP nominee I've skipped every year since they nominated Seabiscuit.
I voted "won't see" for the Blind Side and A Serious Man. If Bullock wins (which unfortunately may happen) I might see it. But I don't really get the style of Coens, and watching the trailer, I have a feeling that I'm not going to like it.
I have not seen A Serious Man, An Education or The Blind Side. The first two have not been seen because of circumstance (missed them), the second by choice. Eventually, I'll force myself to sit through The Blind Side, but not any time soon. I can count on one hand the number of sports-related films I've enjoyed, and a grand total of zero have been connected to American football.
With the exception of Up in the Air, I've seen the others multiple times.
And by second, I mean third. And by third, I mean The Blind Side.
This is the first year I can say that I've made a pointed effort to see as many movies as possible, even before they became "THE nominees". I blame at least a part of that on this blog.
I am left, in the following days, to see:
The Hurt Locker (arrived today from Netflix)
District 9
A Serious Man
For acting categories:
Crazy Heart (tonight, tonight...)
Invictus (also in my home, but can't seem to find the desire to watch)
The Messenger
Many movies that I didn't have an interest in seeing (ie: The Blind Side) I leave up to a friends suggestion. I didn't drag anyone with me to see The Last Station or A Single Man. I'm that guilty person that will see whatever someone else wants to see, sad I know. I get my punishments for that too - When In Rome being the most recent regret.
The only one I haven't seen yet is The Blind Side, and I'm planning to. I'm curious after everything that's been said about it.
And from my experience I can say that while An Education gets better on repear viewings (just ignore the ending), Inglourious Basterds gets worse. I thought it depended a lot on the surprises and the impact you get when you don't know what's going to happen.
One of the principal reasons I frequent The Film Experience is because Nathaniel's coverage of the medium (from We Can't Wait all the way to nomination morning) just about guarantees I will be cognizant of all the serious players in the Best Picture race, and ensure that I see them in theaters. < theatrical release snob> That was true again this year - I saw each of the ten nominees at least once during their local theatrical releases, including "The Hurt Locker". That also includes all of the nominees in the top eight races, except "In The Loop", which I caught on DVD. < /theatrical release snob> Thanks again, Nathaniel, for the depth and quality of coverage. And for the contests (the other reason I frequent the site).
Less than two-fifths of TFE readers have seen The Blind Side and yet 75% of them have opinions that Sandra Bullock is the worst thing since ______.
I don't think that counts as snooty. It's beyond snooty.
I want Streep to win as much as everyone else, but I still thought that The Blind Side was a fun movie and that Sandra's performance was pretty good. It had a sense of vigor that other movies I saw right around it-- Nine, A Single Man-- really lacked. A top ten film of the year? Probably not, but not something to refuse to watch.
The only one I've seen more than once is Precious. I missed the first 10minutes of the first screening so when I saw they had a second media screening I went along to that one too.
I saw them all, except THL, which I watch on DVD this weekend. No desire to watch any of them again except Precious, A Serious Man and maybe An Education (maybe for the opening credits).
RE: People refusing to go see "The Blind Side."
I'm with Rosie.
But, if I were who I was in my 20's, I'd be whistling a different tune. I would have probably not have gone to see it and wrote it off with, "a film for white Republicans to watch and then say, 'See, we're not racist. We're good people who share our wealth with overweight black kids.'"
Age has eroded my cynicism. It was a bad to average (on most levels) film with a great star turn by Bullock that made me laugh and cry. I'm glad I saw it. And I'm glad I'm not the snobby twit I used to be.
I've yet to see The Blind Side - really don't want to but probably will soon - and the only one I've seen more than once is Inglorious Basterds. I'll catch the rest again on DVD. A sad fact that I just realized is that other than Precious and Basterds, I dosed off on every one of the best picture nominees. Some for just seconds (Avatar and Up In The Air) and some for more than that (The Hurt Locker, Up, An Education and District 9). I tend to sleep through a fair amount of films, however, so I don't know if it's the quality or me.
1 for them ALL, ugh. I've wanted to see at least half of them again but haven't gotten around to anything yet. Blerg.
I'm totally with Vatz on The Blind Side. Movie = bad to average (depending on the scene and whether Bullock is onscreen). Bullock = very good. It was always watchable when she was holding it together. Whenever she left, it completely fell apart.
She has a way of finding both great humor and great conviction in that character. In fact, the humor is in the extreme conviction and confidence Leigh Anne has. And Bullock totally sells it, in a way I think not many actresses could.
The fact that she's far and away the best thing about this film that became such a phenom is reason enough for some sort of recognition. That, combined with my feeling that Streep's perf on it own doesn't really deserve to win either, means I can't be too mad about Bullock taking the oscar.
wow the poll results here make me kinda pissed that so few of you answer the other polls ;)
it's so easy to click a button.
Precious was a two-timer for me, while Up in the Air and Inglourious Basterds both got three viewings out of me.
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